For some campus ministries, success might be measured by how many students stay involved. However, at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, Navigator Logan Watson has learned to celebrate something different.
Over the past several years at Ball State, God has grown a ministry where students are not only becoming disciples of Jesus, but also are answering His call to go. As graduates step into opportunities to make disciples on other campuses, Logan has discovered that a healthy ministry isn’t one that holds tightly to people — it’s one that sends them, prepared, to wherever God leads them next.
Pioneering at Ball State University
Logan was initially drawn to The Navigators during his freshman year at the University of Alabama in 2008. At the time, he wasn’t looking to get involved with a campus ministry, but after being relentlessly pursued by a senior named Mark, he started being discipled and slowly grew more involved with the other Navigator students on campus.
“He knocked on my door, sent me texts and calls, and invited me to his Bible study and NavNights,” Logan recalls. “I didn’t know it at the time, but what he was doing was discipling me, teaching me how to walk with Jesus on my own.”
By the time Logan graduated from college, he had started following Mark’s example, discipling guys younger than him and passing on what he had learned. Logan got a job at a bank, but he missed the relational work he had been doing the last couple of years in college, so he decided to take a leap of faith. He quit his job to pursue full-time ministry, joining Navigators EDGE Corps in 2012.
In the 14 years since, Logan has continued his passion for discipling college students, serving at Colorado State University for seven years before he and his wife, Lea, were called by the Lord to a new mission: moving to Indiana to build a ministry at Ball State University from the ground up.
Pioneering a ministry has lots of highs and lows. Logan and Lea felt all of the emotions that come with trial and error — from planning events where no one shows, to trying to find a foundational base of student leaders. However, over the past seven years, the Lord has blessed their ministry, introducing them to students who not only have a heart for God, but a desire to disciple other students as well.
“God has been gracious to give us people,” Logan says. “We have students coming to Bible studies, NavNights, conferences, and Summer Training Programs. And now we are having students sharing their faith, making disciples, and even coming on EDGE Corps and joining staff.”
Sending Disciplemakers to New Campuses
From the beginning, Logan and Lea’s vision for Ball State University extended beyond simply growing one campus ministry. They hoped to see students become lifelong disciplemakers who would one day help reach campuses and communities far beyond Muncie, Indiana.
“When we moved here, our regional directors pitched to us not just Ball State, but having a regional impact and using this campus as a vehicle to bless 200 other campuses across Indiana and Illinois,” Logan says. “So we came with a strong desire to not just raise up EDGErs for our campus, but also for the benefit of other campuses.”
Over the next several years, that vision has slowly taken shape and been fulfilled. Logan and Lea have seen God raise up 21 seniors to do EDGE Corps, 10 of whom have been sent to other campuses in the region. Two such students are Evan Spell and Carly Williams.
Both Carly and Evan were introduced to Logan and The Navigators during their freshman year in 2020. The ministry became a place of community for them, and throughout college, they learned what discipleship looked like firsthand, growing in their relationship with the Lord and in their understanding of how to love those around them well.
“I began to understand and align with the concept of discipleship and evangelism, and what that was to me,” Carly recalls. “I really started to have a heart towards the lost — I started to see them everywhere I turned. And I attribute that conviction to being exposed to it through The Navigators here at Ball State.”
By the end of their four years on campus, Evan and Carly had individually decided they wanted to take the next step in their Navigator journey by joining staff with EDGE Corps, where they would serve on a college campus for two years. Despite being open to being sent wherever the Lord led, they were thrown a curveball: instead of continuing ministry efforts at Ball State University alongside Logan and Lea, they were assigned to pioneer a new ministry at Purdue University.
Though there was an excitement to go to Purdue, there was also a sadness and uncertainty in not staying rooted in the community that Evan and Carly had grown to love over their four years of college.
“It was a shocking moment, and Evan and I made a decision to be intentional,” Carly says. “How could we turn this grief into celebration towards the Lord and seek guidance from Him? So we met up once a week for a couple months to pray over Purdue and our transition there while we were still at Ball State before we graduated. I think that space distinctly turned my heart towards Purdue, because I was praying for people I didn’t know, a campus I’d never been to.”
Now, the second year of ministry at Purdue is ongoing, and the team has seen the Lord begin to answer their prayers. From organizing movie nights, painting events , pickup sports hangouts, and other community get-togethers, they’ve been building trust with students and watching as God is using those connections for His glory.
“The name of Jesus is greater on this campus because of the way He used Ball State in my life,” Evan says. “I want to see that same thing happen at Purdue, where guys are gaining the heart to pour themselves out to be sent as disciplemakers. So what do I want Purdue to look like in five to 10 years? I want there to be evidence that people who love and follow Jesus are still there, following after Jesus, and passing it on to the next generation.”
A Vision Beyond Ball State
As Logan reflects on the past seven years at Ball State, he’s seen firsthand that God’s plans were bigger than simply building one thriving campus ministry. Through students like Evan and Carly, he’s watched the vision that first brought him and Lea to Indiana begin to multiply beyond Ball State, reaching neighboring campuses with the hope of the gospel.
“I thought we had to keep all of our students to stay healthy,” Logan says. “I realize we’re healthier when we’re sending them out.”
Like Ball State and Purdue University more than 5,000 campuses have been prayed over through The Navigators’ partnership with EveryCampus, a ministry focused on prayer for U.S. college campuses. Join us in praying over The Navigators at Ball State and Purdue University, that more students like Evan and Carly would answer God’s call to make disciples and be sent out — whether in Indiana or around the world.
“How can I help these students see that it’s worth it to not just go to Purdue or Indiana State or Illinois, but to also go to Scotland or Japan, Germany or Trinidad — wherever He might lead them?” Logan says. “We’re trusting God that He’ll raise up laborers that don’t just go throughout the region, but to every nation from our ministry and beyond.”
Discipleship Tip:
Healthy discipleship isn’t about keeping people close — it’s about preparing them to go wherever God leads. As you invest in others, pray that God would raise up disciplemakers who will faithfully pass on what they’ve learned to the next generation.
4 Ways You Can Pray for College Campuses
Join a prayer movement for college campuses and students! Today, more than 5,000 campuses have been prayed over through The Navigators’ partnership with EveryCampus, a ministry focused on prayer for U.S. college campuses. Discover four ways you can pray for schools in your community — or even across the country.
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